When I first saw this work by Warrick I thought WOW.

In Memory of Mary Turner: As a Silent Protest Against Mob Violence

This sculpture, depicting a woman cradling an infant in her arms and leaning away from grasping hands and flames at the base, was created in response to the vicious lynching of a young woman named Mary Turner in 1918. Mary Turner’s husband had been lynched and she publicly denounced his murder. In response, a mob of hundreds captured her, hung her upside down from a tree, and brutally killed her and her unborn child.

Artist Meta Warrick Fuller’s sculpture is one of the first created by an African American specifically depicting the brutality of lynch mobs.

Museum of African American History, Boston & Nantucket

African American stories were not told during her time. At least not the truth. She became known for using her work to address social injustice towards African Americans during her lifetime. Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller was a poet, painter and sculptor at the turn of the 20^th Century. Born in Philadelphia in 1877, her parents were able to send her to a good school which helped develop her artistic ability.  Her parents were part of the African American middle class with successful businesses.

Fuller’s work was shown in high school projects at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. She received a scholarship to a university and after graduation, she moved to Paris, France to study with Raphael Collin. Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first African American painter to gain international fame, was also a family friend.

In 1907 Fuller won a gold medal for her work in an exhibition at the 1907 Jamestown Tercentennial. She created 150 dioramas depicting the progress African Americans had made from when slaves landed in Jamestown to the beginning of 1900.